Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 20, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 10 1059 72574 Osprey 0 0 31 Bald Eagle 0 13 68 Northern Harrier 0 33 417 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 119 5040 Cooper's Hawk 0 31 101 Northern Goshawk 1 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 175 786 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 16407 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 1459 4077 Rough-legged Hawk 0 13 21 Golden Eagle 0 37 55 American Kestrel 0 2 641 Merlin 0 8 61 Peregrine Falcon 0 8 102 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 2 Unknown Falcon 0 0 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 1 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 12 2958 100387 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess Visitors: While Lake Erie Metropark is currently open to the public, for the safety of our counter and volunteers we encourage visitors to follow along with the count virtually on HawkCount.org, or our Detroit River Hawk Watch Facebook page. There will be daily updates and photographs.If you do decide to join us in person, please help the counter and volunteers to follow their mandated safety protocols by refraining from approaching them. Please follow the recommended Covid 19 procedures by wearing a mask and maintaining a safe social distance. Thanking you in advance for your cooperation. Stay safe! Weather: This day was, on paper, doomed from the get-go. Strong southerly winds that eventually ended with more of a western flavor brought high temps and low bird counts. The barometer rose about a tenth during the day but was above 30.1” all day. Clouds began to fill in later in the day with odd high formations that have been rarely seen by us. The transition will begin later to a rainy day on Sunday but there is potential for a better day tomorrow with more favorable winds. Raptor Observations: This should be a short paragraph. Although we saw some local birds, eagles and tails riding around on the winds, the migratory birds were almost nonexistent. We counted ten turkey vultures and one red-tailed hawk. However, there was a silver lining in that we saw our second northern goshawk of the season as our first bird of the day. It was the only bird for quite some time. Non-raptor Observations: The non raptor activity was fairly slow too. Our Bonaparte’s gulls provided most of the late afternoon entertainment. The migrating ducks off in the distance were on the move today. What may have been horned larks were passing through in small flocks from time to time but at a distance. Predictions: Tomorrow looks good on paper with fairly mild northern winds with a rising barometer. Temperatures will be about twenty degrees cooler since the reversal of the winds will bring colder air to us. Plenty of cloud cover will foretell a rainy, with possibly little snow mixed in, Sunday. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kevin Georg (kevin.l.georg@gmail.com) Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org More site information at hawkcount.org: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285